New England avenged their opening day loss in Miami, handing out a second-half helping of humility (via a 24-point third quarter) on their way to defeating the Dolphins 41-13 and clinching the division. As the 2-2 11-3 locals struggle to find their identity move on to New York, where a win against the Jets would get them one step closer to the top seed in the AFC, let’s spend a moment and reflect.

Here’s the moment: Twelve years of 10 wins or more. At times during the last couple of decades of the previous century, many New England followers just hoped for the Pats to get over .500. Some years, the playoffs seemed like too much to ask for. This new-millennium, winning-season streak might stand out as the most impressive aspect of the Bill Belichick era. Because, really, that’s all fans wanted: Just a glimpse at nine wins, a step toward respectability for this franchise.

Think about this: area middle-schoolers have never experienced a losing season. When I was in middle school, the Pats went 2-14 (1981). Vastly different gig.

Some things that have stuck out during this remarkable 10-1 streak…

If You’re Lost You Can Look And You Will Find Me, Tom After Tom: Well, it’s just a darn shame that Tom Brady’s on his way down.

Oh, wait: he has 32 touchdown passes against eight interceptions? For 3,847 yards? At a 64.4 percent completion rate? Yeesh. Way to cooperate with the narrative, Tommy. Way to stay the same ol’, same ol’ MVP-caliber QB.

While naysayers will point to his ill-advised interceptions against Indianapolis and San Diego that made him seem about as calm as a capuchin monkey with hot sauce on his nethers, we have to look at his overall body of work: Since falling to 2-2 at Kansas City, this team has gone 9-1, and the quarterback play has been a big part of it. Also a big part of it…

For Those About To Gronk, We Salute You: In this Patriots Daily piece from September of 2011, we proclaimed Rob Gronkowski the “best all-around tight end in Foxboro since Ben Coates.” We stand by that statement. (Just so we don’t get too big for our britches, you can also read our optimistic words about a certain other tight end from the 2010 draft who shall remain nameless.)

After 14 games, the big fella has 76 catches for 1,093 yards (14.4 avg) and 11 touchdowns. Gronk’s only the third TE in history with three seasons of 10 or more TDs. And he’s 25 years old.

Fiesta changes the offense. He seems to supplement the intensity of his teammates and change the mentality of the home crowd. Did you ever watch the kids’ show “ZOOM”? They made up a language called ubbi dubbi that I never quite got the hang of, which reminds me of Gronk. With him on the field, the Patriots offense speaks an entirely different dialect which other teams have a difficult time translating. Anyway, thanks, “ZOOM.”

Ohhh, Two O-o-o-one, Three Fo-o-o-our!

Revis Is Fundamental: No matter what happens against New York this week, New England (the team, the region, the clam chowder: everybody) needs to thank the Jets for letting Darrelle Revis go after the 2012 season. Look at his stats, and nothing really stands out: 43 tackles, one forced fumble, two interceptions.

The biggest surprise of that line for me is that he has so many tackles. Revis is like a veterinarian for geldings: when he’s working, he’s not going to see a lot of balls. (Top that metaphor, Jerry Thornton!) He’s converse Gronk: where one attracts opponents’ attention, the other diverts it. The most important aspect of Revis’ presence gets summarized nicely by ESPNBoston.com’s Mike Reiss, who pointed out in his Quick-hit Thoughts column that the Patriots have been in sub (pass-defense) packages almost 74 percent of the time this year. Without Revis, I wonder if that happens, and if it does, how much less effectively this D would perform.

Gray Skies Are Gonna Clear Up: Ah, running back Jonas Gray. The graph of his season production would look like the scariest roller-coaster ever created, a veritable Kingda Ka on creatine. First, gimme six zeroes for the beginning of the season that he spent on the practice squad. Then plot out 12 yards (Jets), 86 (Bears), 33 (Broncos), 201 (Colts), zero (Lions), four (Packers), nine (Chargers), and 62 (Dolphins). The man is averaging 4.9 yards per carry and continues to provide insurance for the playoffs – and for 2015.

He’s made a solid addition since the middle of the season. But he’s probably fourth on the list.

‘Tis The Season: As Christopher Price of WEEI.com has said on many occasions, the roster with which you enter the season is not the one you have for long. Looking at linebackers Akeem Ayers and Jonathan Casillas, defensive lineman/forklift Alan Branch, and running back/mini-loader LaGarrette Blount, the middle of this season has been a boon for Bill Belichick and company. Considering also that pass-rusher Chandler Jones and run-stopper Sealver Siliga have also returned from injury, the Pats look like they’re in solid shape as the end of the regular season approaches.

Ghost Is The Machine, Or Every Little Thing He Does Is Magic: As much as it hurt to see kicker Adam Vinatieri go lo these eight years ago, we have to appreciate Stephen Gostkowski. He’s the clock on the kitchen wall that you look up at when you come home for Thanksgiving and *whoosh* you’re back in high school on the phone that has the 17-foot-long stretchy cord, listening to Thompson Twins on the radio, trying to get up the nerve to ask that person who sits in front of you in English class out for chicken fingers and/or zucchini sticks at the Atlantic Café.

What? Just me? Anyway, he’s stuck around, proving to be nothing but dependable. This year, he’s made 94 percent of his kicks (31 of 33), including a long of 53 yards, hitting 11 of 12 attempts over 40 yards. Against Miami, he surpassed Vinatieri as the leading scorer in Patriots history with 1,165 points. Tony Franklin, Scott Sisson, John Smith: I tell you, the state of this franchise now? It’s not even funny anymore. And it used to be hilarious with those guys, in a laugh-to-ease-the-pain kinda way.

I Want To Be A Part Of It: We don’t know what will happen down in New York. Coach (for now) Rex Ryan will do just about anything to beat New England in what will probably be his last game against them as the HC of the NYJ. They came within a blocked field goal of winning against the Pats earlier this year.

But there’s something about this Patriots team right now, the way they play, the way they complement (and compliment) each other, the way the new additions have meshed with the stalwarts. We haven’t even discussed Julian Edelman (92 rec for 972 yards), or Brandon LaFell (63 for 819). We’ve neglected to bring up cornerback/street fighter Brandon Browner (21 tackles, 15 penalties) or linebacker/decathlete Jamie Collins (100 tackles, three sacks, three forced fumbles, one interception, 41.2-inch vertical leap) And what about that offensive line and the emergence of rookie center Bryan Stork?

The Bruins beat the Wild 3-2 last night to halt a three-game skid. Get all the stories at BruinsLinks.com.

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My media column in Patriots Football Weekly this week looks at the teflon status of Jets coach Rex Ryan in the media. Despite this being the fourth straight season where the team will not finish over .500, everyone else gets the blame except Rex. Mike Tannebaum, John Idzik, Brian Schottenheimer, Tony Sparano, Mark Sanchez, Geno Smith, anyone but Rex. The media has defended him and continues to defend him simply because he’s fun and gives them plenty of fun quotes.

The release states that Tomase’s responsibilities will include serving as a columnist across all sports, while continuing to excel with his coverage of the Red Sox. Besides his work for WEEI.com, he will be a frequent on-air contributor for Sports Radio 93.7 WEEI in Boston and across New England on the WEEI Network.

Many of his colleagues have been praising Tomase today, and congratulating him on the move. He is well liked among his peers. The same can’t be said for many fans, who will never forgive him for his story on the Patriots taping the Rams walkthrough prior to Super Bowl 36, which was later retracted and apologized for, yet is still taken as fact by most people. (Even though the Herald wrote: “we now know that this report was false, and that no tape of the walkthrough ever existed.”)

I like John personally, never had any issues with him in that regard, but it is astounding to me that he has had zero professional implications for that incident. He remained on the Patriots beat for another season before being rewarded with a move to the Red Sox. The likes of Michael Felger defend him and insist that his story was accurate and he only made a mistake by sourcing once, no matter what has been said about it.

Others have been drummed out of the industry for less. Tomase is rewarded, ostensibly because he’s a nice, well-liked guy.

And no, we’re not going to forget this. It happened.

*****

Twitter post of the week. (From Dolphins beat reporter Omar Kelly)

Tom Brady is the Pennington of today's QBs. His accuracy is fierce, but if he's forced to rush his throws & his dump off is taken away….

Don’t bet they’ll go to Max – Michael Silverman says never say never, but the notion of the Sox making a play for Detroit Cy Young winner Max Scherzer is unlikely, especially with Scott Boras involved.

Patriots’ television ratings through the roof – Chad Finn’s media column looks at the ratings the team has garnered this year, and has several other notes, including Butch Stearns’ candidacy for the Boston Herald sports editior job that went to Sean Leahy.

It really is mindroasting to think about how Goodell can continue to not only avoid any type of sanctions, but actually keep and increase his power while maintaining full support of the NFL owners. In the same day that ESPN’s Outside the Lines released a report on the testimony that Goodell gave about his Ray Rice decision, in which Goodell is shown to be elusive, obstinate, inconsistent, probably dishonest and not very smart, the NFL announced its new personal conduct policy in which Goodell will remain as the ultimate judge, jury and executioner, and keeps him firmly in control of discipline.

If anyone can kill the golden goose that is the NFL, it is Roger Goodell. I just wish the NFL owners could see that.

I stayed up as late as I could last night awaiting the news on Jon Lester. Naturally the news broke just a few minutes after I turned things off and went to bed that Lester had agreed to a 6-year $155 million deal with the Chicago Cubs.

I don’t sense that many people will be upset with Jon Lester for this decision. The heat, from both fans and the media will be directed at the Red Sox.

How will they react? Will there be a subtle leak in an attempt to turn PR to their side? (#SmearCampaign)

Their best move will be to acquire talent to try and fill the void in the starting rotation.

The Red Sox don’t like to take heat from the media. They will respond one way or the other. Here’s hoping it is in the form of player acquisition, not some sort of whisper campaign or Boston Globe article from Bob “The hitman” Hohler.

Does John Henry appear on Felger and Mazz today? Does Larry Lucchino make some jabs at his former protege, Theo Epstein?

Or does Ben Cherington just go about his business of building a competitive baseball team? Let’s hope it’s that.

*****

Gronk! The Interview. – Lindsay Czarniak interviewed the Patriots tight end for ESPN The Magazine. It’s a must-read.

While nothing is official yet, indications seem to be that the Red Sox need to start thinking of the rotation for 2015 and beyond without lefty Jon Lester at the head of it.

Ken Rosenthal had reported yesterday that Lester would likely choose between the Cubs and Giants, though Lester’s agents quickly refuted that report as did the Red Sox, who said they had no indication that they were out of the bidding.

After the Patriots squeaked by the lowly New York Jets at home on October 16th, focus turned to the just-completed six-game stretch for New England, which experts said, would make or break this team. Some leaned towards the latter, predicting doom, even 0-6 over this stretch.

After going 5-1 over the six games, you’d think most questions would be answered. New England won blowouts, they won close, they won at home, they won on the road. They won scoring 51 points, and they won scoring 23 points.

I won’t pretend to know a ton about the Revs or how the Krafts have done as owners to the franchise, but that article still strikes me as a lets strike at the Krafts and indirectly make the “cheap” accusation type of move. It was a great way to get talked about on afternoon drive sports radio, as the topic was right in the wheelhouse of one of the two shows in town.

I don’t know if the Revs can get over the hump and get that first title, but I’ll be hoping they do.

The role seems a bit ambiguous. Finn says Speier will be mostly writing for the BostonGlobe.com website, with some articles also appearing in the paper. He will also not be writing strictly about baseball. While I have no doubts that Alex Speier can write about any sport, it seems a bit strange to me to take the guy who is, in my opinion, the best baseball writer in town, hands down, and use him differently.

In what would be a related move, Finn on the SoSH media forum speculates that John Tomase could be in line to replace Speier at WEEI.com. That would make sense given the history between Tomase and Rob Bradford.

The Patriots will be playing their last prime-time game of the regular season, on NBC’s Sunday Night Football against the San Diego Chargers.

Boston sports media personality Jennifer Royle, who has done shifts at WEEI, the Boston Herald, and other outlets in town, is contestant on this season of ABC’s The Taste.

J.J. Watt would be a better tight end than Rob Gronkowski? Thanks to Pro Football Focus for setting the advanced stats/analytics industry back 10 years. (Same article, Mike Vrabel playing TE was just a “look-how-clever-I-am gimmick by Bill Belichick.”)

If you’ve been an overnight listener of CBS Sports radio and used to listening to Damon Amendolara, that will change in January as his show will move to 6-10PM. Amy Lawrence will move into the slot previously occupied by Amendolara.

It seems like some of the most influential conversation-makers in town would rather talk about how Josh Boyer is ruining the cornerbacks, or worrying about several Patriot players going to the Clippers game last night and ending up hanging out with Justin Bieber or drooling over the prospect of Bill Belichick being called to testify in the Aaron Hernandez trial and being forced to answer questions. ‘It is what it is’ isn’t going to cut it in cross-examination, haha!I even heard the incredibly tired and cliche Did the Packers find the blueprint on how to beat the Patriots???

Anything, it seems, other than what was one of the best regular-season games the Patriots have been involved in for a while. The game had everything – except of course a win by New England.

Since I’m a day late on most of this, you’ve probably seen many of these, but here are some stories I enjoyed.

Would television fee dispute ever affect a Patriots game? – Chad Finn’s media column yesterday looked at the blackout of FOX on FiOS which caused viewers to miss the Cowboys/Eagles game on Thanksgiving and notes that DISH subscribers, already without CSNNE, could lose Patriots games on CBS in the near future too.